, 1887-12-06
TRYING THE NERVES.

An Entomologist's Feelings While n Ia
rantula Wa Crawling Over His Face.
Out on Dearborn avenue, near Lincoln
park, lives a man whose hobby is bugs
not live bugs with vicious teeth and viru-
lent fangs, but bugs impaled upon pieces
of cardboard and kept in glass cases.
Herbert Edgerton, the poSsessor of the
collection, was at home when the re-
porter called upon him the other day.
He conducted the visitor to n coz little
den in the rear of the house, which was
fitted up with a number of cabinets, the
doors of which were appropriately let
tered. GIVE lots of specimens, +" said he,
''but here is one that l value above all
others, though it is not at all rare" Mr..
Edgerton took a piece of cardboard from
the cabinet and placed it upon the table.
Pinned to it was a large hairy spider
which was easily recognized as a taran-
tula. 81 was at Camp Grant, A. T.,
three summers ago." continued the
speaker, Visiting a cousin of mine who
is in the army. One day, while we were
out shooting, / lay down in the sand to
get a few moments rest. We had rid
den a good many miles that day, and as
l was ahead of the rest of the party l
thought / would wait for them to come
up. So I tethered my horse and was
soon stretched at full length upon the
sand. l fell into a sort of a doze and
was awakened by a horrible feeling on
my face. You know a mans mind acts
quickly under such circumstances, and
il didn't take me an instant to realize
that a tarantula was crawling over my
face. If he stung me / knew 1 was a
dead man, but if he simply crawled over
49, fo,n nnJ 800, ,.t, tIn .,-l ,-n,,1J
suffer no ill results. My only recourse
was to keep perfectly quiet and trust to
luck, for as soon as l moved the chances
were that the poison would penetrate
the skin and be coursing through my
veins.
81 closed my eyes and stopped breath
ing, so fearful was l that the tarantula
would be disturbed. Each one of his feet
felt like a red hot iron, and seemed to be
burning a deep hole in my cheek. The
%tarantula didn't seem to be in the least
hurry, as he remained nearly a minute
upon my face, and / was on the point of
brushing him off with my hand and TAX
ing chances of being bitten, when he
crawled off. 1 lay perfectly still for q
moment, and when | got to my feet / was
trembling so violently that / couldn't un
bCtISA WIG oip n DiB hidhBhb iiOLh
flask of brandy soon pulled me together,
and determined to get that tarantula
for my collection. / fastened a small two
tined fork to a ramrod which 1 used for
that purpose, and started after the bug.
l impaled him without any trouble, and
he now has the place of honor in my col
lection. l wouldn't pass another minute
like that, though, for all the collections in
the world.
"Here, continued Mr.. Edgerton, point
ing to an insect nearly four inches in
length, lis n rare specimen. 1t is an
elephant beetle-the largest of the Scara-
beus family. South Africa is the only
place where it is found, and there are but
few specimens in this country. This was
sent to me by n friend of mine who is a
great traveller and who has been in every
inhabitable country in the world. Cen
tipedes are common enough, but this one
here" taking a cardboard from one of
the cabinets, twas a murderer. Several
years ago l passed several days in a hotel
in Albuquerque, N. NJ. Though it was
nothing but a 'dobe building, there were
a number of prominent people there,
among them being n family of rich Mex
cans by the name of Alvuarez. One of
the daughters of Alvuarez-a beautiful
girl about 1S-awakened the nurse one
night with a loud scream. How 1t hap
pened no one knows, but in some way a
centipede had found its way into her bed
and stung her. All the known restora-
tives were applied, but the poor girl did
not recover The centipede was found
and killed, and l begged it for my collec-
ton. AS you can see, it is not a very
good specimen, as it is badly mangled;
out l prize it for its history. I've a great
many more specimens, " concluded Mr..
Edgerton, ''but these are the only ones
which have any particular story connect
ed with Them"